The Yum Yum Factor

Three days is actually a really great amount of time when it comes to discovering Lisbon. I imagine if I lived in Europe, I would treat Lisbon much like we treat NYC and I would visit for a long weekend jaunt once or twice a year. Fly in, explore an undiscovered neighbourhood, revisit a couple of my favourite restaurants, shop a bit, eat a lot and fly back home on Sunday night, relaxed with a belly full of port and bacalhau. I love spending time in a great city without the added pressure of feeling like we have to see EVERY SINGLE AWESOME THING THERE IS TO SEE IN THREE DAYS. make sure to take a ride on a funicular at least once To prepare for a trip, I like to do weeks of due diligence and then just wing it. With all that intensive research, I kind of feel like I know the city already and then when we get there, I just start walking around and what I find is that I will keep turning a corner and bumping into something that I had been reading about anyway. I hate feeling l...

It feels like I have missed a year in yum when, in reality, it has only been a couple of weeks. I mean, I had plenty of yum going on but I just wasn't sharing it here, on the blog. If you follow me on instagram, facebook or twitter, I was certainly sharing... HEY, I GAVE FAIR WARNING TO EVERYONE THAT I WAS GOING TO BE POSTING A SHIT TON OF PHOTOS FROM MY TRIP SO YOU CAN JUST SHUT IT. Anyhoo, our trip to Portugal was absolutely amazing and we certainly ate lots of delicious things that I will be sharing over the coming weeks but for now, we will just start with the homecoming. Our good friends, The Hoffelby's, are a mixed couple. Yes, the husband is Canadian and the wife is American. Since we came home on July 4th and we a trio of zombies all day, we went over to their house for a July 5th belated fourth of July dinner. I made these clams to go with their feast of smoked and bbq'd things, beautiful salads, an amazing ice cream cake and lots and lots of vihn...

We have returned from a fabulous 10 day trip to Portugal and, to be honest, I have just started to come back to reality and still feel like I am still processing the experience. I am pretty sure I could write a bazillion word essay on the wonders of Portugal at this point but who really wants me to do that? Until I can access my internal editor, I am holding off on even touching the actual events of the trip so that I don't bore you all to tears and scare you away because I really do want to share the wonders of this little gem of a country.

The Women of Savour Stratford Sometimes it seems like it's always only about the men when we talk about exciting culinary scenes and, as a woman, that must be so frustrating. Often females are relegated to front of house, baking, and other behind the scenes jobs that are, indeed, important, but they are not usually the ones getting the accolades but I have to tell you, there are an impressive group of women who own and operate businesses, head up the kitchens and run the show in Stratford. I met cheesemakers, chefs, tea and coffee sommeliers and candy makers, all incredibly active in the community and supportive of each other in a way that made quite an impression on me. Every time I sat down to chat with someone, they would tell their story and almost every single time, it turned out that their story intersected with at least one other woman in town. The cheesemaker helped the coffee shop survive after the bank turned her down for a loan for her "hobby", the ...